Tafseer of The Bee · An-Nahl · 16:117
[It is but] a brief enjoyment, and they will have a painful punishment.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
And مَتَاعٌ قَلِيلٌ (a paltry enjoyment) is in the nominative, because the meaning is: what they have in this worldly life is a paltry enjoyment, or: for them in the world is a paltry enjoyment. His word وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ — Allah says: Then their return and their destination is to Us, and for them, because of their lying and their fabrication against Allah of what they used to fabricate, there is a painful chastisement (ʿadhāb) when they arrive before Him.
The explanation we have given is also the view of the exegetes.
Those who said that:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah, the Exalted: لِمَا تَصِفُ أَلْسِنَتُكُمُ الْكَذِبَ هَذَا حَلَالٌ وَهَذَا حَرَامٌ : he said: This concerns the al-baḥīra and the al-sāʾiba.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: he said: The al-baḥāʾir and the al-sawāʾib.
